Jenn's Travels: Waiting

Waiting: I do a lot of it. Everyday. All day.
Life in general is just slower here, so by waiting I'm learning to adapt. My schedule isn't slotted in half hour increments, and I'm not rushing off from one thing to the next. For now I spend most of my day not even knowing what time it is, although that will probably change once I get settled in with the NGO (non-governmental organization) I'm helping.
The internet connection is slow at the cybercafe, so when a page loads in less than a minute, I get really excited. Sometimes I wait at least 20 minutes for a page to load. So I wait, because there's no alternative. But it's teaching me patience, and giving me the chance to observe the world around me, which I think is one of the best ways to understand a culture. For example, while waiting for my page to load, I took a picture of the woman selling eggs across the street:

I wait at the restaurants too, because it can take a while to prepare the food, but it's always worth it. For example, yesterday I waited about 45 minutes for my foutou banaine (mashed up plantains with eggplant sauce over it), which I got to eat for the first time since leaving Cote d'Ivoire over ten years ago. I'm a little ashamed to say that I've been here four days now, but still haven't tried any local cuisine. But Ivoirian food is just so good; I can't resist!

While my room is not exactly posh in comparison to many standards, I have running water (the tap water in Benin doesn't have to be filtered and it tastes great) and electricity, which has only gone out once, so I'm really happy with my housing. Benin is one of the poorest countries in the world, which means that the house I'm living in is one of the nicest in Ouidah (pronounced Weedah). And no, my bathroom doesn't have a shower curtain or a toilet seat, and yes, my bed is made. It's so hot here that you don't even want a top sheet:

The last few days have been orientation/recover from jet lag days, so we've mostly been running errands.
Wednesday we went to Cotonou, the economic capital of Benin, to register at the U.S. embassy. I have never seen so many scooters before in my life! This picture is taken from inside the taxi we took from Ouidah, but as soon as we arrived in town, we took scooter taxis everywhere, so we quickly became part of the chaos. The taxi drivers can be differentiated from everyone else by their bright yellow shirts.

Thursday was spent relaxing, so we toured the Python Temple, which is the Voodoo center in Ouidah (Voodoo originated in Benin), and got to hold a couple of the temple snakes, which are completely tame. I am aware that this sounds like something out of an Indiana Jones film, so here's proof that I'm not making any of it up:

After that, we headed for the beach, which is about ten minutes away by scooter. The beaches are completely empty during the week, so Gaurav and I contemplated the idea of relocating our offices to this more scenic area of Benin. This idea has not been completely dismissed yet.